Central Kitchen Restaurant Review

: Central Kitchen's interior features reclaimed materials and a wood-rich ambience, and the cooking’s seasonal, local, sustainable ingredients clearly speak to the eco-ethos that currently defines California cuisine. Tasting menus follow the fashion of late to list ingredients alone: "apple. lard. rye." delivers a parchment-thin rye crisp with a smear of fat paired with a small glass of warm apple cider. The "crispy duck. almond. currant." is a foodie reformulation of Thanksgiving in several small bites, with the duck delivering the flavor of the fowl and the accoutrements hinting at stuffing and cranberry. Some items come off as trying too hard to be au courant, resulting in haute artistic presentation at the expense of flavor. True cod in clam broth presents beautifully, but the oily richness of the fish is almost entirely missing, delivering delicacy and subtlety certainly, but not a lot of character. A cheese course, available as a supplement to the tasting menu or à la carte, offers a consistently updated selection of three Northern California cheeses, one each cow-, goat- and sheep-milk. For dessert, choices such as the mixture of peanut butter bar and chocolate topped with house-made salted caramel ice cream ensures diners finish on a high note.